UK Farriers on Top at the World Championships
The World Championship Blacksmiths’ Competition is held each year at the beginning of the Calgary Stampede (1st – 5th July 2009) in Canada. Commonly considered to be the ‘Olympics’ of farrier competitions, this year the World Championships celebrated it’s 30th anniversary with 76 competitors representing 13 different countries.
Three days of competition saw entrants participate in a number of forging classes to test a wide 
variety of both shoeing and shoemaking skills. The top ten places from each of the nine classes receive points which accumulate to qualify for the ‘final ten’ who participate in the semi-finals on the fourth day.
Six competitors from the UK, three from the USA and one Canadian went through to the semi-finals to compete for one of five places in the final. After a tense wait for results the final shoeing round took place - amongst the final five were four UK based competitors with the fifth having trained in the UK.
Steven Beane from North Yorkshire (pictured above) claimed the coveted title of World Champion Blacksmith with Northamptonshire based Darren Bazin Reserve World Champion. A terrific result for both Steven and Darren and for UK farriery as a whole
